Schools get baking to celebrate anniversary
11 September 2012
Schools across the UK will be creating recipes and baking cakes using produce they’ve grown to celebrate the RHS Campaign for School Gardening’s birthday next week.
The campaign turns five on Wednesday 19 September, and has now helped more than three million children at over half of all UK schools to learn about gardening. Many of them will be getting into the kitchen to bake fabulous campaign birthday cakes.
Creative cooking wins a prize!
With so many schools involved, the RHS has decided to award £100 worth of gardening vouchers to the school which comes up with the most creative use of ingredients. An online recipe book will then be produced using all the photos and recipes sent in.
Why the campaign matters
Research by the RHS has shown just how important the hands-on experience of growing can be to children’s academic, social and emotional development. It also teaches them planning, patience and teamwork and develops their numeracy and literacy skills.
Since its launch the RHS campaign has gone from strength to strength - it now supports nearly 16,000 schools to use and develop gardens as a learning tool for all subjects in the primary and secondary curriculum. It is now the largest school campaign in the country and the RHS has ambitions to ultimately reach every pupil in the UK.
Celebrities like Ricky Gervais, Rob Brydon and Mary Berry endorsed the RHS Campaign for School Gardening by painting pots at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2012 to raise money for the campaign. Multi-award winning comedian Ricky Gervais said: “Everybody should do something creative and I can’t think of anything better than appreciating the beauty of nature. That’s why I support a campaign that encourages kids to get involved with gardening.”